A flute is a type of wind instrument in which the impingement of air on an edge as the air passes into a sound chamber causes the air to oscillate to produce an audible tone. Two categories of flutes include tubular flutes (such as the modern Boehm flute, the recorder, the tin whistle, the quena, etc.) and vessel flutes (such as the ocarina). Tubular flutes generally employ sound chambers having an open end. The sound chamber bore of a tubular flute is relatively long and slender and is shaped (or substantially shaped) like a tube or a truncated cone. The cross sectional dimension across the direction in which the bore extends may or may not be round. Furthermore, tubular flutes can be divided into fipple flutes, such as the recorder or tin whistle, which employ an airway to focus air over an edge, and other types of flutes in which the player focuses air directly onto an edge through their lips. Vessel flutes such as the ocarina, in contrast, use enclosed sound chambers that may be of several different shapes but that are generally shorter and wider than those of tubular flutes. Ocarinas are also considered fipple flutes because they focus air onto an edge using an airway. Other types of vessel flutes can be constructed without an airway.
Tubular flutes in general, but especially keyless tubular flutes (in which the toneholes are covered with the player's fingers instead of with some type of pad), suffer from certain weaknesses that are addressed by this present invention. (Examples of keyless flutes are recorders, tin whistles, traditional Irish flutes, fifes, quenas, etc.) A common limitation of flutes is that the lowest playable notes are often very quiet and much quieter than some of the higher playable notes. Players of keyless flutes wishing to perform without the aid of electronic amplification may find their instrument lacking in sound volume, especially when accompanied by other instrumentalists. While such flutes can be specifically designed to produce more sonorous low notes in the first octave, doing so usually limits the range of notes obtainable in the second or third octaves. At the same time, a flute designed to emit a strong lower register is often quite shrill in the upper register(s) because the player is forced to blow relatively hard to obtain notes in the upper register. Another weakness of some prior art keyless flutes is that the upper octaves tend to be out of tune (i.e., flat) in relation to the bottom octave. Still another weakness of some prior art keyless flutes is their tendency to “squawk” or jump the octave on the lower notes without the novice player intending to do so. A player is often forced to blow quite softly on the lower notes to avoid this problem. Similarly, higher notes can be difficult to reach.
Vessel flutes such as ocarinas also suffer from certain limitations that can be alleviated by this present invention. Prior art ocarinas generally play from about one octave to as much as one octave and three or four notes. Nevertheless, the vessel flutes cannot be overblown to produce another octave or two as can many of the tubular flutes. At the same time, many ocarinas that produce a wide range of notes relative to other ocarinas suffer from very quiet low notes and relatively shrill or excessively airy high notes. Just as in the case of tubular flutes, designing an ocarina to produce strong low notes will limit the range and quality of its upper notes. Therefore, despite the beauty of tone and ease of play of certain better quality ocarinas, many educators and musicians have indicated a desire for a wider tonal range that would allow ocarinas to play a greater body of music.
Ocarinas with a range of two octaves have been constructed by combining two separate ocarinas pitched approximately one octave apart (a high octave and a low octave) into one ocarina. (While most ocarinas possess a single airway, a single fipple window, a single sound chamber, and a single set of toneholes, prior art ocarinas also include multi-chambered ocarinas with multiple airways, multiple fipple windows, and multiple sets of toneholes.) Each chamber of a multi-chambered ocarina has its own set of toneholes, which typically number four. The fingering pattern for a two-chambered ocarina produces a nearly-chromatic one octave scale for each ocarina using just the four toneholes associated with that chamber. In such an ocarina, four fingers of the right hand control the four toneholes of one chamber and four fingers of the left hand control the four toneholes of the other chamber. The problem with this design is that the one-handed non-linear (i.e., crossfingering) fingering pattern of these ocarinas is unsuitable for faster or more technically challenging music, being relatively slow, awkward, and entirely unlike the traditional woodwind fingerings used on the clarinet, flute, and saxophone. In fact, the basic scale is both anti-intuitive and not very helpful to learners who may later play another instrument in the woodwind family. In another case, a two-octave ocarina, also having two combined ocarinas pitched about one octave apart, can be constructed using a linear fingering pattern similar to that used by most members of the woodwind family. Unfortunately, players of such ocarinas are faced with the daunting task of moving their fingers from one set of toneholes to a separate set each time they wish to cross from one octave to another.